FIFA legal experts are holding discussions in Zurich to determine whether Bafana Bafana’s World Cup qualifier against Senegal should be replayed after the referee was found guilty of match-fixing
Shock waves reverberated at the start of the week when FIFA said its disciplinary committee had banned Joseph Lamptey of Ghana for fixing the result of the match.
World football’s governing body said Lamptey was banned for life from any form of football activity‚ be it administration‚ sports or any other‚ in the harshest sentence it can impose.
He had been found guilty of unlawfully influencing the match result when South Africa beat Senegal 2-1 in their Group D qualifier at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane in November.
Linesman David Lartey‚ who had also been charged‚ was found not guilty.
FIFA bans Ghanaian match official for life for Senegal vs Bafana match fixing
FIFA’s statement on Monday said more details would be made available once the decision was binding‚ in other words once Lamptey has exhausted any appeals he might consider although he is unlikely to do so.
FIFA insiders told Times Media Digital that they had been alerted to the possibility of match fixing by irregular betting patterns and then investigated the match officials.
Lamptey had already been suspended by the Confederation of African Football and removed from the panel to officiate at the 2017 African Nations Cup finals for his poor performance in the game in which South Africa were awarded a soft penalty and netted a quickly-taken free kick while Senegal’s players were still talking to the ref.
But that sanction had to do with his on-field performance and came without any knowledge that he had been paid to fix the result.
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FIFA must now consider whether it will nullify the outcome of the game and order a replay – something it has done only once in World Cup history‚ some 12 years ago when it declared invalid the result of the 2006 World Cup qualifying match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain and made the two countries replay the game.
But on that occasion it was technical issue‚ where the Japanese referee made a blatant error and the Uzbekis protested straight away‚ that led to the decision.
If the Bafana-Senegal game it to be replayed‚ it will be the first time that match fixing has led to such a step. FIFA monitors all betting on its matches and competitions.
Irregular spikes in betting or unusually high amounts of money placed on the outcome of a game triggers alarm bells.
Last month FIFA closed down its own Early Warning System and outsourced the work to Sportradar‚ a specialist private company who were already detecting global match-fixing and irregular betting patterns for UEFA‚ the Asian Football Confederation and South America’s CONMEBOL.
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At the time of the change‚ FIFA president Gianni Infantino was at pains to stress that weeding out betting criminals was still a priority.
Describing match-fixing as “still a serious concern for everyone who loves the game‚” Infantino said Sportradar would “invigorate and enhance” FIFA’s own integrity programme.
Match-fixing has already bedeviled Bafana‚ before the 2010 World Cup when several friendly games were fixed by a Singapore betting syndicate‚ led by Wilson Raj Perumal.
Several SAFA officials were duped by him into appointing corrupt referees and millions were made by dodgy gamblers.
